Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Eminently Reasonable Ruling from District Court

"Bands Promote Awareness, and Giggles, but Aren't Lewd," by Sarah Wheaton
New York Times online
4/14/2011

Summary/Key Points: The goofy "I ♥ Boobies" silicone bracelets that have been the thing with middle and high school students for the last few months have riled up stuffy administrators and teachers who are uncomfortable with anything and everything that might be interpreted as having even a tangential relation to sex. The ruling in this case was in favor of the student, who challenged the school on free speech grounds after they punished her with in-school suspension for wearing the bracelet the day after the school banned them. The judge ruled that they were a venue to raise awareness about breast cancer, and "reduce stigma associated with openly discussing breast health."

Intended Audience: general public

Relevance: Part of the Protecting Student and Civil Rights... exam is a handful of questions about court rulings for students, and for administrators, in cases like this. Hopefully this will provide an interesting, recent example for ORELA to include on their test! It's also interesting to keep an eye on things that could be issues as we go into our schools; my school is pretty relaxed and doesn't care too much about these bracelets, and I make it a point to never tell a student to turn them around, like some teachers do. And of course, it's a good free-speech ruling: the idea that these could be anything more than the most minor of distractions reveals more about teachers' poor ability to handle their classrooms than it does about the judgment of students.

3 comments:

  1. Good for those girls! I understand that the bracelets can be distracting, but it seems like they present a good opportunity for teachers to start a dialogue with kids who giggle at them about how important it is to raise awareness about breast cancer! I'm pretty sure the entire point of the bracelets is to catch peoples attention. I think that banning them from schools, or teachers who ask students to turn them around, like you mentioned, are missing a golden opportunity to talk about something that is sometimes a very uncomfortable topic.

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  2. And the more attention we pay to minute distraction such as the "boobie bracelet" the more momentum we allow it to gain. The uptight nature of anything remotely sexual takes me back to my middle school days where they made the rule that females could no longer wear tank tops unless they put a t-shirt under. How frightfully sexual those shoulders and biceps are!!
    It seems that unless something is blatantly disrespectful or tasteless then administrators need to monitor the ways in which they police student expression.

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  3. I think I agree with most of what all of you are saying though I keep thinking there has to be a limit - or maybe not? If it is offensive language would be one reason. What if they say something that is not a cause, but talks about loving some other part of genitalia? Does that count?

    For the most part I think schools can be a little too sensitive, just like society,and we need to step back and think before we act on things. However, I will say I understand about the t-shirts under tank tops rule came in as I do not think the shoulders and biceps were the issues.

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